Tao Yuanming's poems are mainly divided into pastoral poems, poems of nostalgia, and epic poems in terms of themes. Secondly, there are also service poems, tribute poems, etc. The ideological contents reflected mainly include the following aspects:
1. Pastoral poetry: describes the natural and tranquil pastoral scenery and the natural and simple pastoral life. This is a state idealized and artisticized by poets. It reflects the poet's tranquil and leisurely life interest and leisurely and detached state of mind. It is also a denial of the dark reality and the ugliness of officialdom at that time. For example, "Returning to the Garden and Living in the Fields" [There are few customary rhymes], [Rare human affairs in the wild], "Drinking" [Setting up a house in a human environment], "He Guo Zhubu", etc. It expresses the experience of farming life and love for labor, and reflects the poet's deep friendship with farmers. Such as "Returning to the Garden and Living in the Fields" [Growing beans at the foot of Nanshan Mountain], "Getting early rice in the West Field in the middle of the ninth month of Gengxu", etc. The description of the difficulties of his own life and the decline of the countryside reflects the real world outside the poet's idealized realm. For example, "Resentful Poems of Chu Diao Shi Pang Zhubu Deng Zhizhong", "Returning to the Garden and Living in the Fields" [Going to the Mountains for a Long Time], "Begging for Food", etc.
2． Poems about chanting feelings and chanting epic poems: Tao Yuanming's poems about chanting feelings and chanting epic poems are similar in content, and chanting history is also chanting about feelings. It inherits the poetic tradition of Ruan Ji's "Yong Huai" and Zuo Si's "Yong Shi". The main content of poetry is to express personal thoughts, feelings and aspirations. Some express the ideological contradictions between ideals and reality, joining the world and transcending the world; some worry about the realization of the value of life and express the depression of unrealized ambitions; some reflect the noble character of not colluding with the dark reality and sticking to personal integrity; expresses his angry feelings in the "King Kong Angry Eyes" way. For example, "Drinking", "Ancient History", "Miscellaneous Poems", "Ode to the Poor", "Ode to Jing Ke", "Reading the Classic of Mountains and Seas", etc. mostly belong to this category.
3. Others: Tao Yuanming's service poems were written during his official career, and most of them describe the hardships of service and the longing for retirement as a tired official. For example, "Azuo, a classic song for suppressing the army and joining the army," etc. Most of the gift-reply poems are about friendship between friends. Such as "Answer Pang Joins the Army", "Farewell to Yin and Jin", etc. In addition, Tao Yuanming also has some philosophical poems. Such as "Shadow God" and so on.
The artistic achievements of Tao Yuanming’s poetry:
1. Calm, natural, mellow and timeless artistic style. The themes and content of Tao Yuanming's poems are close to ordinary daily life. The images of the poems are often taken from common things, and they are written directly, without any artificiality or diction. The profound meaning of Tao Yuanming's pastoral poems is only expressed in a light way. Line drawings and true feelings bring out the artistic image and artistic conception of the poem. However, there is magic in the plainness, and beauty in the simplicity. Zhu Xi said: "Yuanming's poems are plain and come from nature." ("Zhu Zi Yu Lei") Su Shi said that his poems are "quality but solid and beautiful, and fat but solid and plump." ("Books with Su Che") also said: "Withered on the outside but cream on the inside, it seems bland but actually beautiful." (Commentary on the Poems of Han and Liu, Volume 1 of "Dongpo Postscript") Yuan Haowen said of his poem: "One sentence is natural and eternally new, and the luxury is complete and true and pure." ("Thirty Quatrains on Poetry") In addition to this basic style, Tao's poems also have some poems that Lu Xun calls "King Kong Angry Eyes Style" ("Qiejieting Essays, Volume 2, Title Undecided"). Zhu Xi also talked about his bold and unrestrained side: "Tao Yuanming's poems are said to be plain. According to some people, he was proud and unrestrained, but his boldness was so bold that he was unaware of it. The one that showed his true colors was an article in "Ode to Jing Ke", which was plain and unrestrained. How can a person speak like this?" ("Zhu Zi Yu Lei")
2. A lofty and natural artistic realm. Tao Yuanming's poetic imagery may seem ordinary, but he has created an artistic realm that is lofty and unconventional. The purpose of his poems is to express freehand feelings and express one's own aspirations, tastes and life experiences, while describing scenes and narratives are just to create a scene for his thoughts. Many of Tao Shi's works have reached the natural artistic realm of the fusion of things and myself, the fusion of subject and object, and achieved the integration and unity of emotion, scenery and reason.
3. Natural character, concise and expressive language. Tao Yuanming's poems are not embellishments or carvings, but use simple and natural language and sparse brushwork to concisely outline vivid images, convey profound connotations, and achieve the artistic effect of freehand brushwork. He is good at refining daily spoken words into poems, which are full of strong flavor of life. He also often uses metaphors, symbols, sustenance and other techniques, and even the allusions are commonplace.